Turning deeptech innovation into commercial opportunity
My 30+ year career has taken me from the lab to boardrooms, involving everything from Oxford academics to business acquisitions.
I’ve been a co-inventor of patented ideas, created proof-of-concept funds, led University TTO teams, been a spinout co-founder and invested in early-stage ventures as a corporate investor. This unusual blend of experience means I can see opportunities and challenges from every perspective — inventor, founder entrepreneur, industry end-user and investor.
I share this commercialisation and business expertise with researchers, universities and innovation-driven organisations who want to deliver commercial impact from their ideas. I have experience across a wide range of industry sectors and deeptech science areas. These include advanced materials (I’m a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining), manufacturing, chemistry and engineering, as well as environmental sustainability, medtech and software.
To support the next generation of commercialisation professionals I offer pro bono mentoring in this area – I’m a Certified Mentor with Knowledge Exchange UK and Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).
Currently, I am the Expert-in-Residence in Materials & Manufacturing at the University of Manchester’s Innovation Factory, as well as a Commercialisation Advisor to the University of Liverpool’s Enterprise team and Consultant to Warwick Innovations.
Other recent consultancy projects and advisory roles have included:
Venture Partner on UKRI-funded accelerator programmes with Zinc
Training delivery for the Government Office of Technology Transfer
Expert-in-Residence @ University of Sheffield (Northern Triangle Mentor Network)
Entrepreneur-in-Residence for SETsquared (Impact IP)
Supervisor & Assessor on the Henry Royce Institute’s Catalyst programme
Commercialisation Advisor, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (Ghana)
Business Advisor, ICURe Explore project
Opportunities to bring new ideas to market still excite me; I am a co-founder of recent University of Sheffield spinout, M2i2.
Richard Holliday 